Malbec Nouveau

It’s not something I had ever tasted before.

You are probably familiar with Beaujolais Nouveau, made with the Gamay grape.  It creates a celebration on the 3^rd Thursday in November on Beaujolais Day, as the first wine released in France after harvest.

This is a wine made with carbonic maceration.  Bunches of fruit are placed in a carbon dioxide-filled tank and sealed in to ferment.  Typically when you ferment grapes, they are crushed or, at the very least, the weight of grapes on grapes, smush the grapes on the bottom, this juice and the yeast on the outside of the skins get going, and fermentation begins.

With Carbonic maceration, the grapes ferment inside their own skins.  With little oxygen, you have created an anaerobic environment.  Here the grapes release enzymes that start the fermentation inside the berries.  CO2 is a by-product of fermentation, so the CO2 in the tank just keeps building.  When the alcohol level reaches around 2%, the berries will finally burst.  From here, a winemaker will typically press the fruit and then continue fermentation, potentially adding yeast.  We continue until, as usual, the wine is dry.

Here’s what’s different.  The carbonic maceration process creates wines that are lower in tannin and lighter in color.  This is to be expected when a portion of the fermentation does not involve the skin where the tannins and anthocyanins for color live.

The acidity is lower because this type of fermentation converts the malic acid (malolactic fermentation), which also gives the wine a softer mouthfeel.

This fermentation style creates esters (chemical compounds) that can develop aromas and flavors of cinnamon, banana, and bubblegum.

Other grapes are sometimes used with this technique, but none are as well known as Gamay from the Beaujolais region of France.

Another detail on this wine…the beautiful label with the sketch of the Earth Goddess Gaia glows in the dark.  Just another level of fun with this wine.